Tuesday, September 2, 2008

High School Girl Banned From Playing On Her School's Team

Football is the quintessential American sport, and the traditional view of the sport is that boys play the game while girls cheer them on from the sidelines. Most sports have a male team and a female team, but football is one of the few sports for which there is only one team—and it’s almost always all-male.

We were upset to read that last week, a 14-year-old girl in Georgia was banned from playing on her private school’s high school team because of her gender. According to this article on ESPN, the Georgia Football League, which oversees the private school teams for the state, dismissed Kacy Stuart from playing on her school’s team. Kacy had played throughout middle school for her school and would have been allowed to continue playing at a public high school had she not attended a private Christian school instead--which is exempt from Title IX since they don't receive federal funding.

We hope that Kacy finds a way to continue playing football, and we applaud her for pursuing her love of the sport despite gender barriers! We were also excited to find out that The National Women's Football Association is hosting football camps this fall to teach interested girls how to play the sport. If you want to do something, gender should not be the factor stopping you!

Do any of you girls know of stories like this one? Do you know any girls who play on a team that is otherwise all-male?